Remembering the giver at this Christmas: Letters

With the Christmas holiday, there will be a lot of family and friends getting together. Some people will be chatting together at an office party and others will be planning to share time with friends or family at a get-together or dinner. There will also be thoughts of loved ones that are no longer with us. Some of those that have been lost were transplant donors. Some of the donors already had provisions made for an organ donation and some families made the decision at a very heart breaking time. On March 22, 2012, three people received an organ from one donor, and I am one of them. To the family of my donor and to the thousands of other families that also had a loved one that was a donor, thank you. My prayers and thoughts are with all of you. I hope this will give you all a small gift of remembrance this Christmas of what you and your loved one gave selflessly to a stranger.

— June Barkey, Covina

Like what is going on right now in the Castros’ Cuba

What liberal pacifists like Inman Moore (Letters, Dec. 13) don’t understand, aside from basic human nature, is that the less the world’s bad guys fear America, the worse the world becomes. When President Obama bows down to and shakes the hand of a murdering cutthroat enemy of the U.S. (Raul Castro), what is the result? First, the human-rights violator has a religious conversion at the feet of the messiah and swears off his evil ways. Second, now with nothing to fear, the despot increases his tyranny just like what is going on right now in Cuba.

— Michael Logan, Pasadena

Seeing red over Sriracha hot sauce 30-day hold

The paper did an excellent job of reporting on the intriguing story of Huy Fong Foods on Dec. 10.

Today, I was shocked to read that the state Department of Health chair-warmer slapped a 30-day hold on the Huy Fong Foods’ fine product Sriracha sauce. This person should get a life. For 30 years, we heard no complaints from the people of Rosemead. Suddenly, whiners and busybodies are picking on this Vietnamese refugee entrepreneur for no obvious reason.

What Mr. Tran may end up doing, as soon as he can afford it, is move across the Arizona border and set up shop there. The chilies will have a couple of hours longer of a drive, but I’m sure Mr. Tran will figure that out, too. The tax situation and government harassment issues will drive him away, and coffers of the city of Irwindale, not to mention Huy Fong Food employees, will suffer.

In the wake of the disaster of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and in the spirit of helping a fellow nation, Taiwan worked closely with its nongovernmental organizations to provide prompt assistance in the reconstruction of affected areas in the Philippines. Within days of the disaster, a 35-person team organized by the Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps arrived in the affected area to provide free medical assistance. The total value of monetary and material donations made by the Taiwan government, civic groups and individual citizens reached $11.09 million as of Dec. 6. We sincerely hope that our efforts, along with the combined support of the international community, will help the people affected by this disaster begin to rebuild.